Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Just finished watching the Oscars. A lot of inspiring stuff there, I have to admit. I don't usually like that kind of thing--a bit too much pomp and circumstance for my taste, but hey, if I end up there one day having written a screenplay, I'll probably love it.

The first cool thing was seeing so much talent all in one place. Those people really know how to do what they do. The elite. The upper echelon of artistic talent. It makes you want to be like them, you know? It reminds you what the goal is, who you're trying emulate as a rising young artist. It's a bit like why I do the Write1Sub1 challenge: to walk in Ray Bradbury's footsteps.

I think my favorite part though was remembering that all those actors and actresses had someone else write their scripts. My buddy Spencer is an actor, and we laugh sometimes because he says he's useless at parties without a script. Probably why he keeps me around.

One of my dreams is to write a bestselling novel that gets turned into a movie, and to be a part of the movie-making process.Film is awesome. I saw a show once (on the Weather Channel of all places) about the making of Jurassic Park (a fantastic book) in Hawaii, and the hurricane that hit and how the film crew had to adapt. I'd love to be a part of that sodality one day.

I took a play writing class in college, but I've never really written a script for TV. Spencer and I have an idea in mind though.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Now Playing: YOU BE TAILS, I'LL BE SONIC by A Day to RememberJust Read: THE WISE MAN'S FEAR by Patrick Rothfuss--Really enjoyed it. A great fantasy epic. Did you know he won the WOTF contest? I ordered it to read his winner--it's straight out of this book. Really well done.Reading Now: A STORM OF SWORDS by George R.R. Martin

Recently, I read a pair of books about writing. One was "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott, and the second was "The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction" by Philip Athans.

They were pretty different books, but they had a few common threads:

1) Publication isn't all it's cracked up to be, and it's far from the end of your writing troubles (ie, there is no end).

2) Study people in real life. They're who you're writing about, under different names and in different places doing different things, but fiction about people who feel real is fiction worth reading.

3) Use your fiction to say something.

4) Take a step back from your writing when it's done and ask yourself if it's believable, honestly (especially F&SF).

5) The surest way to not become a writer is to give up. The surest way to become a successful writer is to never give up.

Some good advice there. I feel like I subscribe to most of it already but reading those books helped to reinforce it and refocus me. I have a longer F&SF piece in mind for my February W1S1 story, so it was nice having these tips to orient me and jump start my creativity a bit.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to the past few weeks. Hopefully this story won't be too stubborn coming out.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Devin. Welcome to my blog, where I post some thoughts about writing fiction--the fun, the challenges, the highs and lows. Feel free to contact me and follow me here or on Twitter @dmmiller4000. Thanks for reading!